See. Do. Show. H2O

Pages

Sunday, June 17, 2012

This blog is the complement to the June 2, H2Ohhh! event at Camp Bayou.
Each week, we will post one of the questions from our contest. The post
will have some relevant info and maybe be a hint to the correct answer
to the question of the week.

The H2Ohhh! event is over and the prize contest deadline has passed. Over the past several weeks, there have been 5 weeks of paid advertisements in eight Tampa Tribune community papers with exposure on TBO.com, and 2 weeks of paid advertisements in the south Hillsborough County editions of the Observer News. All together, that amounts to over 2.2 million unique views per month (per newspaper distribution statistics). In addition, notices were sent via blogs, Camp Bayou newsletter, email blast and social media including Facebook and Twitter.

The contest entry, which also served as an evaluation mechanism, drew just over 200 entries. The initial entries averaged a score of 57%. Not everyone who submitted an early entry also submitted a post-event entry. The average score for those who did submit an entry after the June 2 event was 71%. This represents a knowledge increase of nearly 15%. In all, just 7 entries achieved a score of 100%. The most frequently missed questions were addressed in last week's blog.

As promised, here are the answers to the seven knowledge questions. The one opinion question- How important is it for SWFWMD to fund community projects such as H2Ohhh!- scored 96% for those who felt it was important or very important.

1. What is the number one cause of pollution in Florida’s water bodies?
Answer: Stormwater runoff

2. What is the simplest way to avoid problems in your landscape?
Answer: Use plants best suited to your bed or landscape

3. How much water can be wasted per year by a leaky faucet that drips at the rate of one drip per second?
Answer: 3,000 gallons

4. Which of the following uses less water?
Answer: A 5-minute shower

5. How should you dispose of invasive plants on your property?
Answer: Kill them and then dispose of them in household garbage

6. Why do invasive plants grow so fast?
Answer: Pests and diseases from an invasive plant’s native country are not present in Florida

7. What is the best way to dispose of pet waste?

Answer: Bag
it and throw it in the trash

We hope everyone learned something new and came away with a renewed determination to conserve our most valuable resource- WATER.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

This blog is the complement to the June 2, H2Ohhh! event at Camp Bayou. Each week, we will post one of the questions from our contest. The post will have some relevant info and maybe be a hint to the correct answer to the question of the week.

This is the last blog post before our grand prize drawing on Saturday, June 16. If you haven't had a chance yet to enter our contest, there are still a few days remaining to click the link at left and get your entry in. We especially encourage those who have already submitted an entry since only 1 in 17 people got all the answers correct.

Some answers to reconsider are these:
- While industrial pollution is a serious problem, the fact that these issues can be traced back to the original polluter (point source pollution), means there is a greater likelihood that solutions can be found to address those problems. It is when the source of pollution is not obvious, perhaps small but frequent instances of pollution occurring throughout the watershed, that we find solutions so elusive. This is the hardest type of pollution to deal with in our region.

- A drop per second, every day, over the course of a year adds up to a lot more water than most people might think. This sounds like a word problem from school: If one drop = .0122 ounces (Google it and you get some variation of this amount) and there are 31,556,926 seconds in a year (again, Google to the rescue), how many gallons of water are lost when that drip continues every second for a year?

- The question about water used during baths or showers was addressed last week .

Now that you know the questions that most commonly were wrong, you can answer all the questions correctly to ensure your eligibility for the grand prize drawing on June 16. Enter as often as you like but only one correct entry per email address will be entered into the drawing.

Be sure to click on the link to enter our contest for a chance to win great prizes related to water. Prize photos can be seen at left and include items such as a hydration backpack, a water quality 'discovery' set, and more...

All the answers, as well as our grand prize winners, will be announced in next week's blog post.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

The recent H2Ohhh! family-friendly event at the Camp Bayou Outdoor Learning Center was attended by families, scout groups and others who were looking for a fun water-related activity for a Saturday morning. The next guided tour is the Pollinator Walk on June 23 from 9:30-10:30am. The next big event is the Back to School- Back to Nature event on August 4.

At Saturday's event there were several aquatic activity tables set up on the “Big Lawn” with folks from Keep Tampa Bay Beautiful, Hillsborough County Solid Waste Recycling, Tampa Bay WaterAtlas, League of Environmental Educators in Florida, ConserveItForward.org and a few Camp Bayou volunteers. Door prizes were awarded every half hour. Scheduled activities included native plant walks and critter netting. After a quick hot dog lunch, several guests joined in the canoe tour around the island, including a family who won the last door prize which was the use of 2 canoes for the tour.

Guests were asked to complete a survey which also entered them into the final prize drawings of a hydration backpack; duffle bag, windbreaker and hats; water quality exploration kit or summer fun activities bag .If you missed the event, you can still enter the prize drawing by filling out the survey link at SeeDoShowH2O.blogspot.com. Since only entries with all correct answers are eligible for the drawing, it will help to browse through the event blog for hints to the answers. Deadline for entries is June 16.

H-2-Ohhhh! is sponsored by grant from the Southwest Water Management District. Other sponsors include EcoWater and Sweetbay Supermarkets.

Camp Bayou Outdoor Learning Center (Camp Bayou) is neither a campground nor a summer camp. It was an RV park before the County's ELAP program purchased the land. It is now open to the public for day use only. Through volunteers, donations, membership and grants, Camp Bayou offers pre-scheduled programs to schools, youth groups, adult groups and families! Plus, it's open from Thursday–Saturday from 9 a.m.–2 p.m. for passive recreational pursuits such as wildlife watching, nature photography and trail walks.

The Camp Bayou Outdoor Learning Center is managed by the newly created, non-profit Bayou Outdoor Learning and Discovery, Inc. (BOLD) in a public-private partnership with the non-profit Ruskin Community Development Foundation, Inc. and Hillsborough County Parks, Recreation and Conservation. Camp Bayou is located 3 miles south of S.R. 674 at the end of 24th St. S.E. in Ruskin. For more information, visit the website at www.campbayou.org or call (813) 641-8545.